Learn About Shiny New Graphics And The New Benchmark Test In The 80th Final Fantasy XIV Live Letter Recap

Last night, at the beginning of the Final Fantasy XIV 14-hour stream, Yoshi-P hosted the 80th Letter from the Producer Live. For those of you hoping to see what the new classes might be like in action or hear about what combat changes are coming your way in Dawntrail, I’m afraid this wasn’t the cast. Expect that news later on. We have two more Live Letters to go before the expansion launches.

That doesn’t mean there wasn’t a lot to show yesterday. It’s just that it was all related to one thing – those graphical improvements. Yes, for the majority of an hour and a half, Yoshi-P ran around in the MMORPG showing off all the changes that have been made to the game’s graphics. And have they done some work. Things are brighter and clearer. Water reflects objects when it rains. Everything is more defined. Even the aetherites are stunning. Grass and flowers now sway in response to players moving through them. They’ve done a lot.

Yoshi-P also showed off the differences in how characters and their clothing look. He spent a lot of time playing around with dyes and showing how things reflect off the metal in the clothing. We even spent a bit of time staring at a Lalafell’s face, watching their eyes. Because they don’t just blink anymore, their eyeballs move subtly when you’re looking at them. Was it necessary? No. Neither was making it so mounts tilt the direction they’re turning in the sky. But they did it anyway.

Yoshi-P also spent a bit of time going over the Super Resolution feature and showing how players can make use of it. You can see this in the following images.

For most of this, I’m going to say that it’s really something you’ll probably want to see for yourself. Of course, we included some pictures here, but for some of this, you’ll only be able to tell the difference when the game is moving. That said, there are important things to note. These changes (mostly) apply across the board for all the platforms the game is on. PlayStation 4 and Xbox Series S will have a few limitations, such as visibility being turned down on objects in the distance. But otherwise, they’ll benefit from the changes just like everyone else.

For PC players wondering how they’re going to hold up, there’s great news. The benchmark test can be downloaded tomorrow.

There was some other important news in the stream as well, for those of us who enjoy our peace. Blacklists have been improved and a bunch of related features have been added. You can now block specific people out of your house without locking your house. If they’re on a list, the house just kicks them out. They provided a bunch of power points on all the changes made, we’ll include the Live Letter stream here. It really the first 8 hours of the 14-hour stream, so we’ll queue up the Live Letter for you. If you want to skip right to the blacklist changes – although we suggest looking at all the pretty pictures, you can find the first ones at 3:11:43 in.

Those wanting to follow along can find translations in the Final Fantasy XIV Discord. Keep in mind they're translating a lot of the whole stream, so you will have to scroll.

We also have an important you all might want to see before you go. That’s the schedule for the next two months. There’s a lot going on. We have a few events running at the same time. The Yokai and Dragon Quest events are making a comeback. So if there are items you never got from those, now is your time. Make it Rain is back as well. So is the Moogle Treasure Trove – to be expected. In addition, there are two more Live Letters coming up. That all comes to an end with a 48 (Yes, you read that correctly) hour maintenance period prior to Early Access, and then… Dawntrail Launches.